Austinmer Rock Platform

Austinmer Beach is only 250 metres long and is wedged between two low headlands, each carrying a wide rock platform, and the southern one — the shelf that holds the twin ocean pools — is the main one fished, with toilets, showers and change rooms right beside it. Surf Life Saving's Beachsafe notes that most of the fishing here is for the gutters running out past those platforms. That moving white water over reef is what draws bream, black drummer, luderick and silver trevally in close, with salmon and tailor patrolling the edge at first and last light. It is a ledge you can reach from a cafe strip and a train station, which is the appeal and also the reason to treat it with more care than it looks like it needs.

Fish the seaward and southern faces of the platform, well away from the pools and the swimmers in them, and cast into the gutter where the wash drains back off the rock. Drummer and bream sit in the white water on a lightly weighted bait — peeled prawn, bread or cabbage weed brought from home — drifted back into the foam with a little bread berley. Luderick take a float rig with weed through the cooler months along the same wash lines. Salmon and tailor come to metal slugs spun across the gutter at dawn or dusk, which is also when the beach is quietest, and a rising tide pushes fish up onto the closer ledges.

Black drummer (rock blackfish) are the hard-pulling local favourite at 30cm and a bag of 10 — blue drummer, which look similar, are release-only in NSW. Yellowfin bream are a year-round prospect at 25cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, and luderick come on through autumn and winter at 27cm and a bag of 10. Silver trevally (30cm, a bag of 10 shared across the trevallies) and Australian salmon (no minimum size, bag of 5) push through the gutters, with tailor at 30cm and a bag of 10. Eastern blue groper live on this reef too, and line fishing for them is prohibited through to the end of February 2028, so any that takes a bait goes straight back.

Arrive at first light — Beachsafe puts Austinmer among the busier beaches north of Wollongong, and by mid-morning the platform is shared with pool swimmers, rock-hoppers and surfers riding the right-hander off the southern rocks into the rip. Never cast across or into the ocean pools, and give the surfers a wide berth. Bring all bait with you rather than stripping the platform. Watch a full set roll through before choosing a ledge, and pick the higher, drier rock even if it means a longer cast. A rope gaff or long-handled net saves fish that would otherwise be lost lifting them up the face.

The beach sits directly beside Lawrence Hargrave Drive, with a large car park and park between the road and the sand, plus shops and cafes on the western side. Austinmer railway station is a short walk uphill, which makes this one of the few ocean ledges you can fish without a car. Toilets, showers and change rooms are beside the pools at the southern end, and the platform is a short walk across the sand from there. The rock itself is uneven, weedy and slippery, so it is not mobility-friendly, and children should wear a lifejacket and be kept on the higher, dry rock with an adult right beside them.

The platform faces east-south-east into the open Tasman and Beachsafe puts average waves here at 1.4 metres, so it fishes best on a small swell under about a metre and becomes dangerous quickly as the sea builds. A westerly flattens the face and is the classic window, while a fresh north-easter or a southerly change piles up whitewash across the lower rock. Dawn and dusk on a rising tide are the productive windows. After a big sea the water stays stirred up for a day or two, which can suit drummer but makes the ledge itself treacherous.

Sets wash these platforms without warning, and Beachsafe records a strong permanent rip against the rocks at each end of Austinmer beach, so anyone washed off lands straight in moving water. Check the swell and tide forecasts, watch through sets for at least ten minutes before stepping out, stay off wet, weedy rock, never turn your back on the water, and leave in a rising sea. Wollongong is declared under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016 and the council's map shades the Austinmer platforms, so a lifejacket is compulsory here — adults AS 4758 level 50S or greater, under-12s level 100 — for you, anyone helping and children in your care, with a $100 on-the-spot fine. Wear cleated boots and light clothing you can swim in, never fish alone, and tell someone your plan. If you are washed in, swim away from the rocks, float, signal and have your mate call 000, and know your route back to higher rock. Bluebottles wash in on summer north-easters.

Yes. The southern rock platform at Austinmer Beach, around the twin ocean pools, and the northern platform are both fished, mostly into the gutters that run out past the rock. Fish the seaward faces away from the pools and swimmers, wear a lifejacket — Wollongong is a declared rock-fishing area — and carry your NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt.

Yes, on the rock. Austinmer is in the Wollongong local government area, a declared area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, and the council's map shades the Austinmer platforms. A lifejacket is compulsory when fishing with rod, line or handline from this naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell, for anyone helping you and for any child under 12 in your care. Adults need AS 4758 level 50S or greater, under-12s level 100 or greater, and the fine is $100 on the spot.

Bream, black drummer, luderick, silver trevally and Australian salmon are the regulars off the rock, with tailor at dawn and dusk. Black drummer are 30cm with a bag of 10, bream 25cm with a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, and salmon have no minimum size but a bag of 5. Eastern blue groper also live here, and they are release-only — line fishing for them is prohibited in NSW through to the end of February 2028.

It can be. Surf Life Saving's Beachsafe rates Austinmer 7 out of 10 for hazard, with two strong permanent rips against the rocks at each end and an average of 90 people pulled from them each year. For anglers that means the rocks border the rips directly, so fish only on a small swell, keep to the higher rock and wear a lifejacket.

Drive the Lawrence Hargrave Drive coast road to the beach car park, or take the train to Austinmer station, which is a short walk from the sand. Toilets, showers and change rooms are beside the ocean pools at the southern end of the beach, right next to the platform.